The present invention relates to a sound bar for percussive musical instruments and a method of producing same, and more particularly relates to improvement in production of FRP sound bar used for percussive musical instrument such as xylophones, marimbas and vibraphones.
Conventional use of wood for production of sound bars is inevitably accompanied with poor uniformity in material quality and seasonal variation in tone quality such as tone colour and tonal pitch.
As a subtitute for wood, use of FRP (fiber reinforced plastics) has already been proposed. The invention of Japanese Patent Opening Sho. 59-19997 is one of such proposals. According to this earlier proposal, a FRP sound bar includes a number of voids elongated in the direction of the fiber orientation, and assures characteristic extension of sounds with mild and warm tone colours. In production of the sound bar of this earlier proposal, fibers or thin rods made of low melting point alloys, thermoplastic resins or thermo-meltable materials are dispersed in a resin matrix in the direction of the fiber orientation for formation of the above-described voids, and the resin matrix are heated in order to remove these fibers or rods through melting. This process necessitates multi-staged operational steps which naturally result in high production cost.